The 40 most popular 1980s romance movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Top Gun
1986 · 1h 50m · US
For Lieutenant Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell and his friend and co-pilot Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw, being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. But a tragedy, as well as personal demons, will threaten Pete's dreams of becoming an ace pilot.


The Princess Bride
1987 · 1h 39m · US
In this enchantingly cracked fairy tale, the beautiful Princess Buttercup and the dashing Westley must overcome staggering odds to find happiness amid six-fingered swordsmen, murderous princes, Sicilians and rodents of unusual size. But even death can't stop these true lovebirds from triumphing.


Cinema Paradiso
1988 · 2h 4m · IT
A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.


Dirty Dancing
1987 · 1h 40m · US
Expecting the usual tedium that accompanies a summer in the Catskills with her family, 17-year-old Frances 'Baby' Houseman is surprised to find herself stepping into the shoes of a professional hoofer—and unexpectedly falling in love.


Coming to America
1988 · 1h 57m · US
An African prince decides it’s time for him to find a princess... and his mission leads him and his most loyal friend to Queens, New York. In disguise as an impoverished immigrant, the pampered prince quickly finds himself a new job, new friends, new digs, new enemies and lots of trouble.


When Harry Met Sally...
1989 · 1h 36m · US
Sex always gets in the way of friendships between men and women. At least, that's what Harry Burns believes. So when Harry meets Sally Albright and a deep friendship blossoms between them, Harry's determined not to let his attraction to Sally destroy it. But when a night of weakness ends in a morning of panic, can the pair avoid succumbing to Harry's fears by remaining friends and admitting they just might be the perfect match for each other?


The Key
1983 · 1h 50m · IT
In 1940s Venice, after twenty years' marriage, retired art critic Nino Rolfe and his younger wife Teresa feel their passion waning. To help her shed her inhibitions and rekindle their relationship, the professor records his sexual fantasies in a diary.


Wild Orchid
1989 · 1h 45m · US
A woman lawyer becomes mesmerized by a self-made millionaire during an encounter in Rio setting off a series of erotic encounters.


Blind Date
1987 · 1h 35m · US
When bachelor Walter Davis is set up with his sister-in-law's pretty cousin, Nadia Gates, a seemingly average blind date turns into a chaotic night on the town. Walter's brother, Ted, tells him not to let Nadia drink alcohol, but he dismisses the warning and her behaviour gets increasingly wild. Walter and Nadia's numerous incidents are made even worse as her former lover David relentlessly follows them around town.


The Karate Kid Part II
1986 · 1h 53m · US
Summoned by his dying father, Miyagi returns to his homeland of Okinawa, with Daniel, after a 40-year exile. There he must confront Yukie, the love of his youth, and Sato, his former best friend turned vengeful rival. Sato is bent on a fight to the death, even if it means the destruction of their village. Daniel finds his own love in Yukia's niece, Kumiko, and his own enemy in Sato's nephew, the vicious Chozen. Now, far away from the tournaments, cheering crowds and safety of home, Daniel will face his greatest challenge ever when the cost of honor is life itself.


The Blue Lagoon
1980 · 1h 44m · US
Two small children and a ship's cook survive a shipwreck and find safety on an idyllic tropical island. Soon, however, the cook dies and the young boy and girl are left on their own. Days become years and Emmeline and Richard make a home for themselves surrounded by exotic creatures and nature's beauty. But will they ever see civilization again?


Nine 1/2 Weeks
1986 · 1h 57m · US
An erotic story about a woman, the assistant of an art gallery, who gets involved in an impersonal affair with a man. She barely knows about his life, only about the sex games they play, so the relationship begins to get complicated.


An Officer and a Gentleman
1982 · 2h 4m · US
Zack Mayo is an aloof, taciturn man who aspires to be a navy pilot. Once he arrives at training camp for his 13-week officer's course, Mayo runs afoul of abrasive, no-nonsense drill Sergeant Emil Foley. Mayo is an excellent cadet, but a little cold around the heart, so Foley rides him mercilessly, sensing that the young man would be prime officer material if he weren't so self-involved. Zack's affair with a working girl is likewise compromised by his unwillingness to give of himself.


Romancing the Stone
1984 · 1h 46m · US
Though she can spin wild tales of passionate romance, novelist Joan Wilder has no life of her own. Then one day adventure comes her way in the form of a mysterious package. It turns out that the parcel is the ransom she'll need to free her abducted sister, so Joan flies to South America to hand it over. But she gets on the wrong bus and winds up hopelessly stranded in the jungle.


Fatal Attraction
1987 · 1h 59m · US
A married man's one-night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.


Guinea Pig: Mermaid in the Manhole
1988 · 58m · JP
An artist dealing with the grief of his wife leaving him finds solace in painting the squalor of the sewer. He discovers a trapped mermaid, whom he brings home to heal. Her condition worsens, and she asks the artist to paint her before she dies.


Beau Pere
1981 · 2h 3m · FR
Rémi is a man trapped in a deteriorating marriage. When his wife is unexpectedly killed in a car accident, Rémi is left with his stepdaughter, Marion, who chooses to stay with him rather than live with her birth father. After the initial shock passes, Rémi is caught off-guard when Marion begins expressing her attraction to him. Initially repulsed, Marion's mature beauty wears him down as he finally caves to her seductions.


Arriba Michoacán
1987 · 1h 30m · MX
The two largest ranches in a small town are operated entirely by women, because their menfolk have all emigrated. Seceral of the younger women have boyfriend troubles, and all the women band together to vote their own representative into City Hall as Mayor.


Moonstruck
1987 · 1h 42m · US
37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Johnny, even though she doesn't love him. When she meets his estranged younger brother Ronny, an emotional and passionate man, she finds herself drawn to him. She tries to resist, but Ronny, who blames his brother for the loss of his hand, has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls for Ronny, she learns that she's not the only one in her family with a secret romance.


Bull Durham
1988 · 1h 48m · US
Veteran catcher Crash Davis is brought to the minor league Durham Bulls to help their up and coming pitching prospect, "Nuke" Laloosh. Their relationship gets off to a rocky start and is further complicated when baseball groupie Annie Savoy sets her sights on the two men.


The Jewel of the Nile
1985 · 1h 46m · US
Joan Wilder is thrust back into a world of murder, chases, foreign intrigue... and love. This time out she's duped by a duplicitous Arab dignitary who brings her to the Middle East, ostensibly to write a book about his life. Of course, he's up to no good, and Joan is just another pawn in his wicked game. But Jack Colton and his sidekick Ralph show up to help our intrepid heroine save the day.


Can't Buy Me Love
1987 · 1h 34m · US
Nerdy high schooler Ronald Miller rescues cheerleader Cindy Mancini from parental punishment after she accidentally destroys her mother's designer clothes. Ronald agrees to pay for the $1,000 outfit on one condition: that she will act as though they're a couple for an entire month. As the days pass, however, Cindy grows fond of Ronald, making him popular. But when Ronald's former best friend gets left behind, he realizes that social success isn't everything.


As Tears Go By
1988 · 1h 38m · HK
Mid-level gangster Wah falls in love with his beautiful cousin, but must also continue to protect his volatile partner-in-crime and friend, Fly.


A Room with a View
1986 · 1h 57m · UK
When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperon Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?


Out of Africa
1985 · 2h 41m · US
Tells the life story of Danish author Karen Blixen, who at the beginning of the 20th century moved to Africa to build a new life for herself. The film is based on her 1937 autobiographical novel.


Overboard
1987 · 1h 52m · US
Heiress Joanna Stayton hires carpenter Dean Proffitt to build a closet on her yacht—and refuses to pay him for the project when it's done. But after Joanna accidentally falls overboard and loses her memory, Dean sees an opportunity to get even.


Wheels on Meals
1984 · 1h 48m · HK
Cousins Thomas and David, owners of a mobile restaurant, team up with their friend Moby, a bumbling private detective, to save the beautiful Sylvia, a pickpocket.


Footloose
1984 · 1h 47m · US
When teenager Ren and his family move from big-city Chicago to a small town in the West, he's in for a real case of culture shock after discovering he's living in a place where music and dancing are illegal.


Urusei Yatsura: Remember My Love
1985 · 1h 33m · JP
The third film finds Ataru transformed into a pink hippopotamus, which sends Lum chasing after the wicked magician responsible, with catastrophic results. With Lum gone, her friends decide that there is no reason to remain, and so Tomobiki slowly returns to normal. The highlight of the film is a high speed chase scene with an angry Lum flying after the mysterious Ruu through the city at night and into a hall of mirrors (and illusion ). Ataru's true feelings for Lum are probably more obvious in this film than any of the others.


Splash
1984 · 1h 50m · US
A successful businessman falls in love with the girl of his dreams. There's one big complication though; he's fallen hook, line and sinker for a mermaid.


Wings of Desire
1987 · 2h 8m · DE
Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.


Yu Pui Tsuen II
1987 · 1h 30m · HK
Before Michael Mak’s Sex And Zen became a cult favourite in the ’90s, there was Ho Fan’s Yu Pui Tsuen (The Carnal Prayer Mat, 1987). But without sex bomb Amy Yip, coarse humour or lesbian love affairs, Yu Pui Tsuen had to rely on the nudity and sex from his cast of relative unknowns to save the day. When a young man dreams that he drowns after a night of carnal passion, he asks a buddhist monk to translate the experience for him. The monk replies that the dream is a warning not to indulge the pleasures of the flesh to excess, but the man ignores his advice, marrying a virgin and making love to her constantly. However, after several torrid affairs, the man begins to realise the sagacity of the monk's warning.


Dangerous Liaisons
1988 · 1h 59m · US
In 18th century France, Marquise de Merteuil asks her ex-lover Vicomte de Valmont to seduce the future wife of another ex-lover of hers in return for one last night with her. Yet things don’t go as planned.


Sahara
1983 · 1h 51m · UK
Intent on winning a competition in place of her distinguished late father, beautiful young heiress Dale takes on the guise of a man and competes in his spot, embarking on a car race that crosses the unforgiving Sahara desert.


Teen Wolf
1985 · 1h 32m · US
When a shy teenager's new-found powers help him score at basketball - and with the popular girls - he has some pretty hairy decisions to make.


Fast Times at Ridgemont High
1982 · 1h 30m · US
A group of Southern-California high school students ignore their studies in favor of indulging in their teenage distractions.


The Quack
1982 · 2h 8m · PL
A famous surgeon is beaten by drunken bullies, loses his memory and cannot recollect who he was before. He gets to a village, lives in a not so well to do family and becomes the Quack - he slowly regains his talent for medicine and saves the lives of several village patients.


Flashdance
1983 · 1h 35m · US
Alex Owens, a young woman juggling between two odd jobs, aspires to become a successful ballet dancer. Nick, who is her boss and lover, supports and encourages her to fulfil her dream.


Urusei Yatsura: Lum the Forever
1986 · 1h 33m · JP
While performing in a student film, Ataru cuts down Tarozakura, a large, ancient cherry tree. Strange things begin to happen all across Tomobiki: a mountain appears out of nowhere, spring changes to winter, and Lum loses her powers, while those around her act as if she doesn't exist.


The Gypsy
1986 · 1h 35m · FR
Hubert Durieux is a banker in a small French town who is struggling to keep up with the demands of all the women in his life. Just when things couldn’t get any worse, his precious white Citroën is stolen under his eyes by a beautiful gypsy girl, Mona.
The 1980s codified the blockbuster — high concept, wide release, heavy merchandising — while home video quietly built a second life for films that flopped in theaters. Practical effects hit their peak just before CGI arrived.
Romance is the genre most shaped by its era's ideas about intimacy, which makes watching across decades a genuine education. It spans the screwball comedies, the sweeping melodramas, and the modern indie two-hander.